Who you’re gonna call? The development of university digital leaders

In our hyper-connected digitised educational world, university tutors are interested in capitalising on affordances of digital trends in teaching and learning. Students, under the alias of preservice- teachers, walk among them equipped with digital skills in areas of their interest. How can we encourage collaboration between tutors and students that can promote the use of the digital force wisely, support the development of students’ professional identities further and extend tutors’ digital competences? The story of nine tutors and eleven undergraduate pre-service-teachers working together on digital partnerships is set against discussions around digital leadership and citizenship. This case study aims to highlight how universities can respond to technology-driven change by engaging students further and support their awareness of digital citizenship. The overall results showed that the informal learning that students have capitalised outside the classroom can be used to scaffold their development of digital citizenship through offline community engagement. It demonstrates the advantage of using such opportunities as a means to encourage citizenship practices among university student communities and the positive impact that such synergies can have on all the participants

Instructional immediacy practices in online learning environments

It is essential to create an online environment where students feel motivated and engaged, in order to achieve effective learning. Online learning environments (OLEs) enable tutors to apply various methods of enhancing students’ communication, so that the issue of feeling isolated is addressed and worthwhile learning can take place. A significant body of the literature has asserted that communication practices in the classroom are an important factor to the learning process and the student-tutor relationship. Immediacy is part of communication practices that support students learning in face-to-face and online classes. This study presents the most important immediacy practices that can help tutors to enhance students’ learning by decreasing the physical and psychological distance between students and tutors in online learning and increasing student-tutor interaction. Immediacy has been shown to be a remarkable predictor of perceived online learning, positively affecting students’ interest and engagement in a course. Hence, students become more willing to participate and communicate with their tutors and peers. Tutors should therefore be aware of these practices and understand how to apply them effectively in the enhancement of students’ online learning

Instructional Immediacy Practices in Online Learning Environments

It is essential to create an online environment where students feel motivated and engaged, in order to achieve effective learning. Online learning environments (OLEs) enable tutors to apply various methods of enhancing students’ communication, so that the issue of feeling isolated is addressed and worthwhile learning can take place. A significant body of the literature has asserted that communication practices in the classroom are an important factor to the learning process and the student-tutor relationship. Immediacy is part of communication practices that support students learning in face-to-face and online classes. This study presents the most important immediacy practices that can help tutors to enhance students’ learning by decreasing the physical and psychological distance between students and tutors in online learning and increasing student-tutor interaction. Immediacy has been shown to be a remarkable predictor of perceived online learning, positively affecting students’ interest and engagement in a course. Hence, students become more willing to participate and communicate with their tutors and peers. Tutors should therefore be aware of these practices and understand how to apply them effectively in the enhancement of students’ online learning. Keywords: Immediacy, Online learning, Student interaction, Isolation, student engagement

Young Students’ Perceptions of Factors That Can Contribute to Emotional Eating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The present study is aimed to establishing young students’ perceptions of factors that can contribute to emotional eating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It has been noted that emotional eating contributes to obesity and other negative impacts of heath and therefore need to examine perceived factors that contributes to it.  The study involved 60 adolescents aged from 12 to 15 years from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire developed from the objectives of the study was used to collect data from all the 60 participants. The findings indicate that there are number of factors such as social, physical and psychological that contributes to emotional eating.  Both the literature review and the survey underlined revealed that students were influenced   by multiple factors to get into emotional eating. The study concluded that emotional eating is a complex behaviour that could result in unhealthy emotional and physical states. The study thereby recommended that there is need to address the social, physical and psychological factors that contribute emotional eating. Keywords: emotional eating, young students and social, physical and psychological factor

Students’ perceptions of their m-learning readiness

The following paper presents the results of a study aimed at achieving a better understanding of the psychological readiness for mobile learning (m-learning) among Saudi students, while also evaluating m-learning readiness as a whole in Saudi Arabia - a topic that has not yet received adequate attention from researchers. Data was acquired via a questionnaire administered to 131 Saudi students at UK universities, in July 2013. The study confirmed that students are confident about using mobile devices in their daily lives, and that they would welcome more opportunities for mobile learning. The findings also indicated that Saudi higher education students are very familiar with, and psychologically ready for, m-learning

Factors Affecting Academics’ Involvement in TEL Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Reinforcing the level of essentiality of understanding the factors that influence the involvement in TEL-oriented CPD and the challenges to the sustained expansion of their expertise not only for academics, but also professional bodies and educational developer for effective integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning remains is the current emphasis on strategic continuing professional development (CPD) programmes of technology enhanced learning (TEL) within higher education. A naturalistic approach and making use of qualitative method were applied in achieving the inquiry, using semi-structured interviews. The perceptions and views of twelve academics from one college in Qassim University (QU) in Saudi Arabia is going to be explored and discussed during this study; although academics had both internal and external motivations towards the value of involvement into TEL CPD opportunities, the findings indicated that significant challenges existed to the active participation of TEL programmes, including time and workload, relevant and realistic programme content that address needs, opportunities to practise the use of TEL, and accessibility and awareness. Furthermore, the fundamental conclusion of this paper that should be taken into account is that the vast majority of academics would like to involve and also value the importance of TEL CPD when their inhabiting factors are addressed; so as to impact positively on their academics into TEL CPD, the sufficient role of management support and institutional culture within Saudi organisations of higher education are highly recommended. Keywords: Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL), Involvement, Lecturers

Perceptions of teachers using social stories for children with autism at special schools in Saudi Arabia

Social StoriesTM have been found to be an effective intervention in supporting the improvement of social capabilities for children with autism. However, there are no studies that discuss the possible cultural implications in their implementation and classroom use. For instance, there has been little discussion on the cultural connotations presented by the selected images or topics. Furthermore, no studies have explicitly studied the implications of employing Social Stories in countries which have a distinctive character due to the influence of religion, such as Saudi Arabia. In other words, no studies have reviewed how a person in Saudi Arabia may perceive a commercially purchased Social Stories in contrast to a person in, say, the United Kingdom.This study focuses on investigating the adoption of Social Stories as an intervention to improve the social skills of children with autism in the Saudi Arabia context. The study explores the perceptions of fifteen teachers from two special schools in Riyadh who work with children with autism and employ Social Stories with their children. The teachers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews and their views of the various factors that affect the use of Social Stories in social skills interventions were explored. Findings from this study indicate that the teachers were aware of what constituted Social Stories (that is, the concept) and of where they could be obtained in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, they recognised the different barriers and factors contributing to the effective use of Social Stories. Culture, in particular, was highlighted as a significant potential barrier to the use of Social Stories. For instance, the depiction of dress code or items which are not permissible according to the Islamic laws of Saudi Arabia in the imagery used in Social Stories. Opportunities for further research were also provided

The readiness of applying m-learning among Saudi Arabian students at higher education

This paper presents study investigating the extent to which Saudi students understand and are familiar with mobile learning. It investigates students’ use of handheld devices and considers the daily activities for which they could be used while also evaluating m-learning in Saudi Arabia - a topic that has not yet received adequate attention from researchers. Initial data was acquired through a questionnaire carried out among 131 Saudi students at UK universities in July 2013. The study confirmed that students’ are confident using mobile devices in their daily lives and that they would welcome more opportunities of mobile learning. The findings reinforce the fact that higher education policy makers in Saudi Arabia need to consider the possibility of creating mobile learning environments at academic institutions

Auditing technology uses within a global voluntary organisation

WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, is the umbrella organization for Member Organizations from 145 countries around the world. As such one of its remits is to provide programmes that promote leadership development and opportunities for girls and young women to advocate on issues they care about. One of the ways WAGGGS is exploring to do this more widely and efficiently is through the use of digital technologies. This paper presents the results of an audit undertaken of the technologies already used by potential participants in online communities and courses and investigates the challenges faced in using technology to facilitate learning, within this context

Master Teachers in Computing: what have we achieved?

Recent changes to the teaching of Computing in all schools in England have been profound and wide-ranging, changing the subject from one focussed on the use of ICT products to one focussed on the understanding and creation of computing systems. This change in the curriculum has created a strong demand for professional development of in-service teachers, to develop their skills and expertise to deliver this new curriculum. One approach to developing in-service teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum has been through the Computing At School Master Teacher programme, appointing and training experienced in-service teachers to deliver continual professional development (CPD) peer-to-peer. However, many potential Master Teachers require additional training before they can take up this role. In this paper, we describe how we have trained two cohorts of Master Teachers in two successive years. Evaluation of the first cohort informed revisions to the second cohort's training. The diverse needs of the individual trainees, identified through semi-structured interviews and analysis of completed tasks, led to a variety of CPD being delivered, but almost all required training and practice with programming. Before and during the programme, the trainers shared resources and had online meetings to discuss their work.This was useful in terms of establishing and maintaining consistency between different providers. The use of many teaching strategies that provided collaborative working and discussion opportunities were highly rated by the trainees. The first cohort of teachers has already delivered a significant amount of CPD in their first year after training. The second cohort are well placed to start their CPD delivery, with a better appreciation of where they need to develop their own skills